Configuration

Overview

The Intel® ASF Agent Console has configuration settings that impact the operation of the ASF solution. There are several ways to configure and enable ASF on your system. Listed below are several options the IT Administrator may use.  

Table 1 lists the ASF Agent configurable settings.

Configurable Settings

Setting Description
AlertDestinationPingInterval When PingAlertDestination is enabled, this setting determines the time between pings to the management station.
DestinationAddress IP address of the management station.
Enable Enables ASF.
EnablePresenceHeartbeats Hardware-generated pulse from the client that the management station may monitor to determine if the client is present on the network.
PingAlertDestination Enables sending a standard Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping packet to the management station.
PresenceHeartbeatInterval Time between heartbeat pulses from the client.
SNMP_Community Identifier that matches the client computer with the remote management application.
Enable Watchdog Enables the OS Hang Watchdog Timer.
Enable Watchdog Interval Time between Watchdog timer pulses.
Remote Control Functions Enables the Remote Control functions.
Set ASF Security Keys Set the ASF 2.0 security keys.  Security keys should be 40 characters long.  Acceptable characters are A..F, 0..9.

Spanning Tree Timing Parameters

Table 2 lists the ASF configurable settings for Spanning Tree.

Setting Description
Link_Reconnect_Count When link is temporarily lost and then restored, common with a Spanning tree event, ASF Agent detects that network link is restored and tries to reconnect to the Management Console. The ASF Agent sends (ICMP) Pings to the Management Console using the values specified by this parameter. The IT Administrator needs to take into account the general network traffic when link is restored, and how quickly the IT Administrator wants to send ASF Alerts.
Link_Reconnect_Interval When link is temporarily lost and then restored, common with  a spanning tree event, the ASF Agent detects when link is restored and tries to send alerts as quickly as possible to the Management Console. When network link is restored, ASF Agent accelerates the Network Pings by the value specified by the Link_Reconnect_Interval parameter. This continues for the number of times specified in the Link_Reconnect_Count. After this time, the ASF Agent returns to sending (ICMP) Pings to the Management Console every Proxy Ping Interval.
Send_Pet_Delay When link is temporarily lost and then restored, common with a spanning tree event, ASF Agent detects when link is restored. ASF Agent may set a delay for sending Alerts to the Management Console, when it detects that Intel's Ethernet controller is capable of storing the ASF Alerts after link loss. This parameter specifies the amount of time that ASF waits after link is restored before sending alerts to the Management Console. This parameter allows the IT Administrator to avoid sending alerts when network traffic is high.

Intel® ASF Agent Console

To launch the Intel ASF Agent Console, double-click the Intel ASF Agent Console shortcut in the Control Panel.

General Tab

With the ASF Agent Console General tab, you can enable or disable ASF, and select the adapter to use. The rest of the tabs in the application are advanced settings that the IT Administrator uses to optimize network performance.

This tab contains all of the basic information necessary to configure the integrated ASF-capable LAN on Motherboard (LOM) or network interface controller (NIC) and enable alerting. The required steps are:

  1. Check Enable ASF to enable ASF and make all the other configuration options available.
  2. The Select active adapter option lists LOM or NIC, for use with ASF. If none of the adapters in the system support ASF, the combo box is empty, and the Apply button and other tabs are disabled. If there is at least one ASF-capable adapter or LOM included in the system, the list contains a Autoselect entry in addition to the adapters list. By choosing this entry, the ASF agent console automatically selects the adapter that best fits the configuration. In this case, after pressing the Apply button, the combo box shows the selected adapter. You can also choose an adapter explicitly from the list.  To aid you in your selection, you can choose how the adapter is described. From the Preferences menu, choose Identify adapter by and select one of the supported formats - MAC address, Local area connection name, adapter description, or Miniport instance.
  3. Enter the IP address of the computer with the remote management console in the Traps Destination Address box.
  4. If required for your network, enter an identifier in the SNMP Community String box that matches the system with the remote management console.
  5. Click Apply.

When configuration of the software is complete, the Status button turns green and the Alerting Enabled text appears. 

Timers Tab

The Timers tab enables the IT Administrator to view, enable, and adjust the heartbeat timer, the OS hang watchdog timer, and ping settings. To modify any of the timer settings, select the desired timer and adjust the slider bar. When the updates are complete, click Apply.

Enable Heartbeat

When enabled, this timer provides a hardware-generated pulse from a client system to a Management Console for it to monitor the system, and verify it is present. The Interval is the number of seconds between heartbeats. The timer is implemented in hardware, and is independent of the operating system.

Enable OS Hang Watchdog

The OS Hang Interval configures the amount of time that passes before ASF decides the operating system is hung. The operating system resets the watchdog timer every few seconds. If it is not reset in the time specified by the OS Hang Interval setting, ASF assumes the operating system is hung.

Enable Ping to management console

When enabled (PingAlertDestination), this timer sends a standard Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping packet to the management console. The Interval value is the time between pings (AlertDestinationPingInterval).

Remote Control Tab

The ability to remotely power-up, power-down, reboot and power cycle a system may be enabled or disabled by the IT Administrator. This capability is both an ASF V1.0 and ASF V2.0 feature. However ASF V2.0 adds an authentication security scheme to verify the management console has the right credentials to remotely control a system. The Remote Control tab provides the ability to enable and disable each remote control feature individually. An IT Administrator may specify the boot media, such as boot to: "A:", "C:", "PXE Server", etc. Furthermore the boot attributes may also be specified, the IT Administrator may specify to lock-out the keyboard or disable the Front panel buttons on the system. See the ASF specification for all of the supported features.

NOTE: The Management Console and the client systems must support the Remote Control features to utilize these features.

Security Tab

This tab allows the IT Administrator to set security keys and random-number seed. This information is only visible on ASF2.0 systems with ASF 2.0 adapters installed. The IT Administrator can either set custom keys manually, or load the keys from a distribution file. The keys themselves are shown as labels on the tab. Note, that for security reasons, the keys cannot be read back from the alerting device. Therefore, after applying the keys, a string of asterisks appear instead of the actual keys. Before applying the keys, verify they were entered correctly.

NOTE: Setting up new Security keys does not affect the current secured ASF session, which uses keys derived from the previously set keys. To reset the session keys, either terminate the session or disable and then re-enable ASF on the alerting adapter. 

Local Info Tab

This tab shows information about the local machine.

Spanning Tree Tab

This tab allows the IT Administrator to set the spanning tree parameters.

Ping destination on link reconnect

Delay sending Platform event Traps on link reconnect

When link is temporarily lost and then restored, common with a spanning tree event, ASF Agent detects when link is restored. ASF Agent may wait to send Alerts to the Management Console knowing that Intel's 82541 EM and 82547EM devices will store the ASF Alerts. This parameter specifies the amount of time that ASF waits after link is restored before sending alerts to the Management Console. This parameter allows the IT Administrator to avoid sending alerts when network traffic is high.

Login Script

ASF may be configured using an existing users login script, thus leveraging the existing infrastructure to configuring ASF clients. See the ASF sample login configuration script. IT administrators who are familiar with scripting can modify the example file. To save the file to your hard drive, right-click the link and save the file, using a .xxx extension.

Warning: THE ASF SAMPLE LOGIN CONFIGURATION SCRIPT SHOULD NOT BE USED IN ANY ENVIRONMENT WHERE EQUIPMENT OR DATA MAY BE AT RISK. Intel provides no technical support for the script. The script is completely untested, and as such, may contain defects in design, manufacture and/or warning. It is provided only as an example of a possible implementation "AS IS," with no warranty whatsoever, either expressed or implied, or warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. By using this script you expressly release Intel from any and all liability for any harm caused by its use, whether or not contemplated by you in advance, under any legal or equitable theory of recovery. For information on scripting, refer to applicable Microsoft* documentation.

Below are several possible options for using the login script to configure ASF throughout an enterprise:

VBScript

WMI provides a scripting interface. Using VBScript, you can write scripts that connect to the WMI service locally or remotely, retrieve information, or execute methods. Since ASF is implemented through WMI, you can script ASF configuration values. This section includes a sample Visual Basic Script that can remotely enable/disable and configure alerting on a client from the command prompt. This script allows you to configure the configurable settings except for the Spanning Tree parameters.

The following text file contains the sample script. If you are familiar with scripting, you can modify this file for use in your organization. To save the file to your hard drive, right-click the link and save the file in the location you desire, with a .vbs extension.

Warning: THE ASF SAMPLE CONFIGURATION SCRIPT SHOULD NOT BE USED IN ANY ENVIRONMENT WHERE EQUIPMENT OR DATA MAY BE AT RISK. Intel provides no technical support for the script. The script is completely untested, and as such, may contain defects in design, manufacture and/or warning. It is provided only as an example of a possible implimentation "AS IS," with no warranty whatsoever, either expressed or implied, or warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. By using this script you expressly release Intel from any and all liability for any harm caused by its use, whether or not contemplated by you in advance, under any legal or equitable theory of recovery. For more information on WMI scripting, refer to applicable Microsoft documentation. 

Among the options for using Visual Basic scripts to configure ASF throughout the enterprise are the following:

NOTE: To connect remotely to WMI services, you must have administrative rights for both the local and the remote systems. 

To execute the script, open a command prompt. In the directory to which you saved the .vbs file, type cscript.exe <script name> and the appropriate parameters. The parameters, described in the sample script file, are as follows:

[/target:<systemname>] [/user:<username>] [/password:<password>] [/enable:true|false] [/destinationip:<destinationip>] [/ping:true|false] [/pinginterval:<interval>] [/heartbeat:true|false] [/heartbeatinterval:<interval>] [/snmpcommunity:<snmpcommunity>] [/retrycount:<retrycount>] [/retryinterval:<retryinterval>]

For example, the command cscript.exe asf.vbs /target:frank /user:steve /password:foo /enable:true enables ASF on a target computer named frank. Other examples are provided in the sample script file.

If the you do not specify a /target parameter, the script is applied to the local computer. If you do not specify any of the other parameters, the script retrieves the current configuration settings from the target computer or, if a target is not specified, from the local computer.

Group Policy

Microsoft Group Policy enables the IT Administrator to configure their client systems in the background using Microsoft's registry available on each client system. The Group Policy editor is used to create an ASF policy that may be assigned to a group, site, a domain or an organizational unit. Furthermore Microsoft Group Policy may be used to force the installation of the ASF Agent, a configuration script such as a login or VBScript. Next, an administrative template is created that defines the configuration settings and is applied to the network.

Microsoft Group Policy may be configured to re-apply the configuration to all of the client systems, and lock down the client systems so that end users cannot modify configuration settings. For additional details on Group Policy consult Microsoft at www.microsoft.com.

Transforms

Microsoft Install (MSI) supports Transforms, which represents the differences between two Microsoft Installer (MSI) databases. When downloaded to a client system a Transform modifies information in the target database. The IT Administrator creates a transform that includes the configuration changes required to transform the initial install into a install that is desired. Once the transform is generated, a package is created that includes both the initial ASF install as well as the generated transform.

For additional details on transforms, please consult Microsoft at www.microsoft.com. For tools to assist you in creating transforms, you may wish to consult with InstallShield* Corporation at www.installshield.com

WMI Browser

The ASF properties and configurable settings may be changed using a WMI browser, such as Microsoft's CIM Studio or WBEMTEST.

From the root/cimv2 namespace, navigate to the class name IA_ASF_OOBAlertService. Perform a search for this class name if your browser supports searches. Otherwise, use the following derivation:

root\cimv2\CIM_ManagedSystemElement\CIM_LogicalElement\CIM_Service\
CIM_OOBAlertService\IA_ASF_OOBAlertService

The managed object format is part of the Common Information Model (CIM) standard. The .mof files play the same role in CIM that management information format (.mif) files play in the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) standard. A .mof file contains compliable definitions of CIM classes and includes the properties, qualifiers, and descriptions that are a part of each class. A class entry in a .mof file is a definition only; any code that services the class must be implemented elsewhere.

Following are the contents of an example .mof file:

instance of IA_ASF_OOBAlertService
{
AlertDestinationPingInterval = 60;
Caption = "Intel ASF OOB Alert Service";
CreationClassName = "IA_ASF_OOBAlertService";
Description = "Intel ASF OOB Alert Service";
DestinationAddress = "10.9.235.24";
DestinationIsAckCapable = TRUE;
DestinationType = 1;
Enable = TRUE;
EnablePresenceHeartbeats = TRUE;
IPAddress = "10.9.235.3";
MAC_Address = "00-d0-b7-a8-69-11";
MessageFormat = 5;
Name = "Intel ASF OOB Alert Service";
NetBIOSName = "SAG-RAINIER-XP";
OtherDestinationTypeDescription = "SNMP";
PingAlertDestination = TRUE;
PresenceHeartbeatCapable = TRUE;
PresenceHeartbeatInterval = 60;
PresenceHeartbeatIntervalMaxValue = 1359;
PresenceHeartbeatIntervalMinValue = 11;
RetryCount = 3;
RetryCountMaxValue = 255;
RetryCountMinValue = 1;
RetryInterval = 20;
RetryIntervalMaxValue = 346;
RetryIntervalMinValue = 3;
SafeMode = FALSE;
SelectedAdapter = "{27BDB01E-9576-4165-B255-1DE6470F64A7}";
SNMP_Community = "public";
Started = TRUE;
StartMode = "Automatic";
Status = "OK";
SupportedAdapters = {"{27BDB01E-9576-4165-B255-1DE6470F64A7}"};
SystemCreationClassName = "Win32_NTDomain";
SystemID = "6061";
SystemName = "Domain: SAG-RAINIER-XP";
UUID = "44454c4c000010ff80ff80c04fffffff";
};

Last modified on 7/27/07 11:21a Revision 16